Kenny Kerr

Window Clippings 2.1.28

As usual, you can get the update via the “Check for Updates” button on the About tab. New users can download the latest version from http://www.windowclippings.com/.

To get “Check for Updates” to work behind an HTTP proxy, you can use the use the “netsh winhttp” command on Windows Vista or the “proxycfg” command on Windows XP. I’m sorry for the inconvenience. The next major version of Window Clippings includes a brand new HTTP foundation with automatic proxy detection and configuration.

This build includes a few improvements:

Much better support for DPI scaling on Windows Vista.

Fixes in the capture screen on Windows Vista when using the selection rectangle.

There is also a surprise new feature which I’ll introduce in a day or two (to coincide with the release of another related product). Stay tuned.

I hope you enjoy using Window Clippings!

© 2008 Kenny Kerr

Window Clippings Website Redesign

I finally got around to updating the Window Clippings website with a fresh new look. I’ve tried to keep it simple and easy to use.

I hope you like it!

Windows with C++: Windows Imaging Component (Part 1)

My latest column is now available in the April 2008 issue of MSDN Magazine. This is part 1 of a 3 part series about the Windows Imaging Component that ships with Windows Vista as well as the .NET Framework 3.0 and later.

Windows with C++: Windows Imaging Component Basics

This month I'll show you how to use WIC to encode and decode different image formats and a few things in between. Next time I'll explore some of the more advanced features and show you how to extend WIC with your own imaging codecs.

Enjoy!

If you’re looking for one of my previous articles here is a complete list of them for you to browse through.

© 2008 Kenny Kerr

Window Clippings 2.1: How to Capture Menus and Other Interactive Effects

One of the more popular features that Window Clippings provides is the ability to capture menus, tooltips as well as other interactive effects that applications may produce. Here’s how it’s done.

Let’s imagine I want to capture this Explorer window along with the popup menu that is visible when I right click on the drive:

If you launch the Window Clippings capture screen the popup menu disappears automatically since Explorer lost the input focus.

Keep in mind that the capture screen doesn’t show a copy of your desktop. It is actually a powerful view of your live desktop so that you can see any changes that might occur in the background.

To include the popup menu in the captured image you need to take advantage of an option called Delay before capture that is available on the Image tab of the Options window. To get there simply right click the Window Clippings icon and select Options from the menu (if the capture screen is already visible you can simply right click the capture screen and select Options):

Now select the Image tab and set “Delay before capture” to the number of seconds that you would like to have in order to prepare the “scene” for capture:

Now click the OK button to save the change and double click the Window Clippings icon again to show the capture screen. Now simply double click the Explorer window:

You will notice a fading message in the bottom right corner of your screen’s work area indicating how much time remains before Window Clippings will take the shot:

 It is at this point that you should display the popup menu, or any other effect that you would like to capture. When the timer reaches zero Window Clippings will capture the selected window and any associated popup windows that it detects.

Here is the result:

Note: although there are standard approaches available to developers for displaying different types of popups, some applications use non-standard approaches which aren’t always very easy to detect. Window Clippings 2.1 does a good job of capturing the most common types of popups but there is still room for improvement. The upcoming release of Window Clippings will continue to improve in this area.

Stay tuned for more “How to ...” articles.

© 2008 Kenny Kerr

Window Clippings 2.1: How to Include a Disabled Parent Window

In my last “how to” article I showed how you can select multiple windows with Window Clippings by holding down the Ctrl key while clicking additional windows. You may however come across a window that is disabled and thus cannot be selected. By far the most common reason for this is when an application is displaying a modal dialog box and the parent window is then disabled until the dialog box is closed.

Let’s start again with the capture screen:

Here you can see the Calculator application with its modal “About” dialog box.

To include the parent window simply hold down the Shift key while clicking or double clicking the “About Calculator” window. Window Clippings will automatically include the parent in the selection:

And here’s the result:

Stay tuned for more “How to ...” articles.

© 2008 Kenny Kerr

Window Clippings 2.1.22 ... and Add-Ins!

I know I said I was going to start focusing on the upcoming 2.5 release but I needed to make some minor improvements to the way Window Clippings handles external add-ins as a few users have asked about this.

As usual, you can get the update via the “Check for Updates” button on the About tab. New users can download the latest version from http://www.windowclippings.com/.

There are a number of improvements to the way add-ins are handled.

Enable/disable external add-ins

You now have the option to enable or disable all external add-ins. External add-ins are disabled by default. Simply click the checkbox on the Add-Ins tab to tell Window Clippings that you’d like it to load external add-ins. Disabling external add-ins can improve performance as Window Clippings doesn’t have to search for any registered add-ins. The performance impact is particularly noticeable with .NET add-ins that need to be JIT-compiled as they are found and loaded.

Registering .NET add-ins with UAC turned off

Window Clippings will now properly register .NET add-ins if you have turned UAC off. The corresponding WindowClippings.dll version 2.1.22 is required to support this.

.NET add-in versioning

Add-ins developed using the 2.0 version of the Window Clippings assembly won’t load by default using Window Clippings 2.1 since the .NET Framework’s runtime (CLR) checks the version of the dependent assembly. Fortunately the CLR allows you to override this default behavior with a configuration file letting it know that a particular version should redirect to the newer version of the Window Clippings assembly. Here is what the configuration file should look like to map Window Clippings 2.0.28 to 2.1.22:

<configuration>
  <runtime>
    <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
      <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="WindowClippings"
                          publicKeyToken="4fe954bdf3e14227"
                          culture="neutral" />
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="2.0.28.0"
                         newVersion="2.1.22.0"/>
      </dependentAssembly>
    </assemblyBinding>
  </runtime>
</configuration>

The Send to FTP add-in

I’ve repackaged the Send to FTP add-in that Ari Glaizel developed. The zip file contains the original add-in plus the latest version of WindowClippings.dll as well as the configuration file described above. If you’d like to use this add-in simply copy all the files and paste them into the folder containing WindowClippings.exe and then register WC.Extension.SendToFtp.dll using the “Register Add-In” button.

The Add watermark add-in

Similarly I’ve repackaged the Add watermark add-in (that I wrote last year with source code as an example). The zip file contains the original add-in plus the latest version of WindowClippings.dll as well as the configuration file described above. If you’d like to use this add-in simply copy all the files and paste them into the folder containing WindowClippings.exe and then register Kerr.WindowClippings.FilterWatermark.dll using the “Register Add-In” button.

I hope you enjoy using Window Clippings!

© 2008 Kenny Kerr

Window Clippings 2.1: How to Select Multiple Windows

In my last “how to” article I showed you how easy it is to get started with Window Clippings and take your first screenshot of a window, but what about multiple windows? Let’s start again with the capture screen:

If you simply double click the desired window then Window clippings will capture an image of it and close the capture screen. If however you single click a window then the capture screen will highlight your selection and allow you to modify your selection in different ways before it is captured:

One of the things you can do at this point is add additional windows to your selection. Simply hold down the Control key (Ctrl) on the keyboard and click another window:

You can of course remove a window from the selection by clicking it again while holding the Control key. Once you’re happy with your selection you can right click the capture screen and select the “Create Image” command:

And the results are just what you’d expect:

There are a few more exciting selection features. Stay tuned for more “How to ...” articles.

Note: To avoid right clicking and selecting the Create Image command you can also double click. The trick however is to double click the last window you’d like to include in the selection before you’ve actually selected it. Since Window Clippings treats the first click as a selection/deselection operation, selecting a window first and then double clicking it may remove it from the selection when multiple windows are involved. I’m not entirely happy with this behavior and am working to improve this aspect of multiple window selection in an upcoming release.

© 2008 Kenny Kerr

Window Clippings 2.1: How to Get Started

So you’ve compared the results of using Window Clippings with the other options provided by Windows. You’ve installed Window Clippings. You might even have purchased a license. Now what?

Many screen capture tools, and most applications for that matter, make it very obvious that you’re using the product. When you start them up you’ll see a window with menus, buttons, toolbars, possibly even a basic image editor thrown in. Is that a kitchen sink in the Tools menu?

In my mind a screen capture tool should put the emphasis on the screen or at least on the application that you’re trying to capture an image of. And that’s the rationale behind the Window Clippings user experience. Of course newcomers aren’t always sure where to start since they’re probably expecting a typically busy application window. Instead, here’s all you’ll see when you run Window Clippings for the fist time:

As the welcome balloon mentions, you can double click the icon to start capturing images of the screen. You can also press the Print Screen key on your keyboard. The result is a shaded screen that looks something like this:

As the help text points out, you have a few options here as well. For now just double click the window you would like to capture and Window Clippings will save an image of it to a file. You’ve just taken your first “window clipping”:

But where did it go? This time right click the Window Clippings icon and click the “Open Storage Folder” command:

Window Clippings will show the folder where images are stored using Windows Explorer:

There’s a great deal more that you can do with Window Clippings but I’ll leave it there for now as that should be more than enough to get your started. Enjoy!

Stay tuned for more “How to ...” articles.

© 2008 Kenny Kerr

Window Clippings 2.1.18

I’ve just released an updated build of Window Clippings 2.1 with a handful of minor bug fixes. It’s mainly just a few loose ends that I wanted to tie up before I start focusing 100% on the upcoming 2.5 release.

As usual, you can get the update via the “Check for Updates” button on the About tab. New users can download the latest version from http://www.windowclippings.com/.

Although there are a few other changes, here are the only ones you’ll likely notice:

The “Freeze window during capture” option that mysteriously disappeared in the 2.1.16 release is back.

If you select the “Always prompt for location” option it will no longer create the default storage folder automatically.

I hope you enjoy using Window Clippings!

© 2008 Kenny Kerr

Microsoft MVP 2008

I just heard that I have received the Microsoft MVP award again this year for my contributions to the Visual C++ community. Thanks to my friends at Microsoft. It’s been a pleasure getting to know all of you.

Unfortunately the MVP Summit is no longer just “down the road” for me. Maybe next year.

My colleague, Matt Davey, just got his first award this year. Congrats pal.